Cuba publish draft fay that opens door to gay marriage | Rters

Contents:

• CUBA WANTS YOU TO THK IT’S A GAY PARADISE. IT’S NOT.
• TIPS FOR GAY AND LBIAN TRAVELERS CUBA
• CASTRO ADMS 'JTICE' FOR GAYS AND LBIANS DURG REVOLUTN
• CUBA PUBLISH DRAFT FAY THAT OPENS DOOR TO GAY MARRIAGE

CUBA WANTS YOU TO THK IT’S A GAY PARADISE. IT’S NOT.

Some of those church took advantage of the openg 2018 and 2019 to mpaign agast another plebisce which would have rewrten the nstutn a way to allow gay marriage.

Wh a populatn of jt unr 75, 000 and a reputatn for well-prerved lonial archecture, not cisg, a gay bar seems an improbable niche-filler. As of 1979, beg gay is no longer a crime Cuba, although unr Article 303a of the untry’s Penal Co, “publicly manifted” homosexualy remas illegal, as do “persistently botherg others wh homosexual amoro advanc.

The ernment Havana ref to regnize the ternatnal week of LGBT rights celebratns, allowg only an officially sanctned gatherg on May 17 — unr Mariela’s patronage — to mark Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia, which memorat the day the World Health Organizatn cid to remove homosexualy om s classifitn of diseas.

TIPS FOR GAY AND LBIAN TRAVELERS CUBA

“The realy for the LGBT muny Cuba is very different om that scribed by the ternatnal media, ” Ignac Estrada, a 33-year-old gay man om Santa Clara, tells me. He and other LGBT Cubans are “very unhappy about the awards and regnn” she has received abroad, sistg, “It do not reflect the feelgs of the gay muny on the island. In a 2010 terview wh the Mexin newspaper La Jornada, he placed the blame for Cuba’s historil persecutn of gays squarely on his own shoulrs, llg “a great jtice.

In May 2012, Mariela was qutned by a Cuban-Amerin dience member about her uncle Fil’s “ncentratn mps for gay men” durg an appearance at the New York Public Library. Mariela Castro, the dghter of former Cuban print Rl Castro, has openly advoted through a ernment-fund center for improved rights for gays, lbians and transgenr people. In 2018, Cuban legislators abandoned provisns that would have legalized same sex marriage amid fears that a homophobic backlash would have lowered turnout for a referendum to approve a new nstutn.

CASTRO ADMS 'JTICE' FOR GAYS AND LBIANS DURG REVOLUTN

Between 1965 and 1968, homosexual men were rcerated UMAP (Milary Uns to Aid Productn) mps where they faced btaly and attempts to turn them to "real" men. In 1980, more than 100, 000 Cubans (some unter-revolutnari, some petty crimals, some homosexuals) left Cuba the Mariel boat-lift for the Uned Stat. The women's liberatn movement of the 1970s, which challenged sexist and homophobic assumptns, and the hold of the church, had a weaker impact Third World untri than the imperialist untri where arose.

Bee Cuba do not have the rourc to elimate the material basis of the tradnal (heterosexual) fay, the sexist and homophobic attus that acpany this fay form rema. Ian Lumsn, his book Machos, marin and gays, says there is "ltle evince to support the ntentn that the persecutn of homosexuals remas a matter of state policy". Cuban physician Celto Alverez explaed that all laws regardg homosexualy had been repealed and that homophobia was a qutn of "prejudice, not persecutn".

CUBA PUBLISH DRAFT FAY THAT OPENS DOOR TO GAY MARRIAGE

In 1993, Fras y Cholate (Strawberri and Cholate), a film cricisg Cubans' tolerance of homosexualy, was produced by the ernment-n Cuban film dtry (which n only afford to produce three or four films a year). The improvement Cubans' attus to homosexualy are documented the 1995 film Gay Cuba, which b terviews wh gay men and lbians, ernment officials and average cizens, wh mil performanc and gay pri paras. The terviews which form the re of the film show that the chang ernment policy and the openg of channels for the discsn and celebratn of different sexuali have allowed gay Cubans today to lead much more open liv.